1. Field of the Invention
The inventions disclosed and taught herein relate generally to floating production units; and more specifically relate to a floating production unit with disconnectable transfer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Patent Application No. 20090126616 discloses an “offshore floating production, storage, and off-loading vessel has a monolithic non ship-shaped hull of polygonal configuration surrounding a central double tapered conical moon pool and contains water ballast and oil storage compartments. The exterior side walls of the hull have flat surfaces and sharp corners to cut ice sheets, resist and break ice, and move ice pressure ridges away from the structure. An adjustable water ballast system induces heave, roll, pitch and surge motions of the vessel to dynamically position and maneuver the vessel to accomplish ice cutting, breaking and moving operations. The moon pool shape and other devices on the vessel provide added virtual mass capable of increasing the natural period of the roll and heave modes, reducing dynamic amplification and resonance due to waves and vessel motion, and facilitate maneuvering the vessel. The vessel may be moored by a disconnectable turret buoy received in a support frame at the bottom of the moon pool and to which flexible well risers and mooring lines are connected.”
U.S. Patent Application No. 20080311804 discloses a “system is described for use at offshore locations of large depth, for mooring a production vessel or floating unit (14) at a location over a hydrocarbon reservoir (26) and for connecting risers (101) that can be carrying hydrocarbons up from the sea floor to a production vessel that stores the hydrocarbons, flowlines for water injection, gas lift, gas export, umbilicals and mooring lines that moor the vessel. Both the mooring lines and the risers are disconnectably connected to the vessel though a connection buoy, or connector (16). The invention concerns a system that allows a connector (16) to be used that is of minimum mass and volume, to ease its handling especially during its connection and disconnection to and from a vessel.”
U.S. Patent Application No. 20080096448 discloses a “combined riser, offloading and mooring system is provided for the offloading of hydrocarbons from a floating production vessel (FPV), onto a tanker. The system preferably includes an offloading buoy tethered to the mudline by at least one mooring line. The offloading buoy and the mooring line can be part of an offloading buoy system for supporting a production riser and fluid jumper lines. Additionally, the offloading buoy system can support an offloading jumper line from the FPV to a fluid connector on the offloading buoy system through which hydrocarbon fluid is loaded via an offloading hose onto a tanker. The combined riser, offloading and mooring system also preferably includes at least one set of FPV mooring lines for securing the floating production vessel to the offloading buoy system. The system further preferably includes a hawser line for connecting the tanker to the offloading buoy system. In this manner, the number of mooring lines for the floating production vessel may be reduced.”
U.S. Patent Application No. 20050163572 discloses an “arrangement for the storage of marketable quantities of crude oil at a semi-submersible floating production vessel. The storage is achieved by hanging a segmented reinforced concrete tank to the underside of the semi-submersible vessel. The semi-submersible vessel can be an existing semi-submersible drilling rig. By maintaining the mass of the tank and contents slightly greater than the displacement of the tank and by arranging the centre of gravity of the tank below its centre of buoyancy, the metacentric height of the semi-submersible vessel is approved. The storage arrangement for the oil provides the necessary maintenance of mass by either storing approximately ⅘ of the oil in oil-over-water chambers and approximately ⅕ in gas-over-oil chambers or by using a gas-over-oil-over-water arrangement in all the chambers. The piping arrangements minimize the free surface of liquids in the tank.”
U.S. Patent Application No. 20030159581 discloses a “method and system for sea-based handling/treatment of fluid hydrocarbons (oil) with associated gas comprise a first separation step in a high-pressure separator (18) installed on the sea bed, from which is output an oil flow containing an essentially predefined percentage of residual gas. The oil containing residual gas is carried through a riser (22) up to a surface vessel/production ship (12), where it is subjected to a second separation step in a second separator (24) incorporated in a low-pressure surface plant on board the vessel (12), this separated residual gas being used as fuel for direct/indirect generation of electric power for the operation of the underwater and above-water sections of the system. Water and gas produced in the first separation step is returned to a suitable reservoir by the use of a multiphase pump.”
The inventions disclosed and taught herein are directed to an improved system for floating production units and disconnectable transfer systems.